Brexit was a victory for democracy. One person, one vote is the leveller that society needs to protect itself from elitism. In a democratic election each person, no matter how elevated or lowly, has a vote that counts equally. The result is the collective will of the people. The collective will of the British people, 43 years after joining what Brits believed was a free trade area called the Common Market, was a rejection of what has become empire building by an unelected elite of EU bureaucrats.

‘The EU is a cot case’ I wrote recently. It is a cot case politically, socially and economically. It will be even more so after this vote. Yet you would not have known it if all your information was sourced, before last week’s historic vote, from the pathetic coverage by TVNZ, the Herald or, worst of all, the establishment ‘pro-Remain’ BBC. Nor would you have known it if you had listened to the world’s political elites of Obama, Hollande, Merkel, Cameron, or Key. You had to be in tune with the ordinary folk of Britain, the ones who had to suffer the consequences of seeing their sense of who they are and their place in the world diminish while the ‘educated’ elites protected themselves with invisible walls against those outside.

It is to the credit of the LEAVE campaign that they were able to cut through all this establishment claptrap and focus on the essentials so dear to the heart of the minds of the Great British public - democracy, sovereignty and the ability to cut free from the constraints of the EU to negotiate trade deals with the wide world outside its borders.

I heard the news whilst in Bangkok on my way home to New Zealand. I was delirious with joy at the outcome having voted LEAVE, not last Thursday, but 41 years ago. I perceived then that the Common Market was not a desire for free trade but rather a post war expression of Franco-German ambitions for creating a European super-state. The following day I read a letter in the English speaking Bangkok Post that said it all – perhaps now, it conjectured, the free trade deal between Thailand and the UK that had been blocked by the EU for so many years could become a reality.

Politically, the European Union is profoundly undemocratic. It is run by unelected bureaucrats with an arrogance and contempt for the people they make suffer through their policies. It is the unelected European Commission that makes the rules, has enlarged the EU from the original six to twenty eight, now twenty seven, member countries, and has ambitions of being the Emperors of Europe like the Caesars of old. Nation states are to be wiped out, by taking away all control of their own borders, their currencies, their laws and their customs. The unelected bureaucrats want to expand out of Europe into Asia with the admission of an Islamic state, Turkey, and want to raise a European army to fight for their Empire. The so-called European Parliament of elected MPs has no power whatsoever. It is a mere sop, the window dressing of a feigned democracy. All this is understand by those made to suffer under this autocracy, the ordinary people of Britain.

But some have not suffeed. They are the educated elites who move effortlessly from Oxford and Cambridge Universities into the civil service or the BBC or the ‘city’ of London with its merchant bankers, its ‘bright young things’, who deal in derivitives, carbon trading and a whole host of bogus markets they had created and that brought about the financial collapse of 2008. It was not lost on the ordinary people that these elites were never punished for the misery they caused. Instead they were rewarded with new jobs all bought at the expense of those who saw their life savings and pension funds decimated.

It is no coincidence that REMAIN found its only support in central cities, especially London, as well as Oxford, Cambridge and of course Scotland, a country that talks a lot about independence but really cannot sustain their own economy without handouts either from the rest of Great Britain or, failing that, the EU.

The post Brexit fallout shows just how the elite and educated bright young things do not understand democracy. They didn’t get the result they wanted so they have thrown their toys out of the cot and called for more referendums until they get the answer they want. The concept of everyone having a say and that all voices are equally valid and that this is fundamental to democracy has never occurred to them. They have been told all their lives that they are ‘special’ and all they have to do to get what they want is to cry like the babies they are. Their post Brexit shenanigans have been as disgraceful as they have been disrespectful and contemptuous of the majority.

What can Kiwis learn from all this? Kiwis understand democracy and universal suffrage. They pride themselves on being the first in the world to extend the vote to women and recognise that everyone has an equal right to be heard. It is fundamental to who they are and how they govern themselves. Yet, since the influence of Britain declined after they opted to join the Common Market, there has grown a different sort of elitism, where a small segment of the population in more equal than all others and, to the undying shame of Kiwis, it is based on some fictional notion of ‘race’. Now race based elites have rights and privileges denied the ordinary citizens of the country. Like the unelected bureaucrats of the EU, these unelected elites want greater power, already have voting rights on Councils and like the unelected elites of the EU they seek to expand their empire into a separate state where only they call the shots.

A blog I wrote a month ago before I went away on holiday, Middle New Zealand has had a gutsful, has found a sympathetic audience. On my return I see it has been spread far and wide. It is my most successful blog ever, attracting 4000 new readers and receiving nearly 900 Facebook ‘likes’. It is small beer I’ll grant, but it is indicative of the growing rage amongst every day Kiwis that their democracy is being trashed. Already a political party is growing, NZ First, that understands this and will take advantage if the main parties continue treating the ordinary Kiwi with contempt.

Kiwis gave the elitist Key a bloody nose over his attempt to take away their flag. I doubt he has learned a thing from that exercise. Instead he sits in his ivory tower extending race based privilege to tribal elites utterly contemptuous of the damage he is doing the fabric of Kiwi society.

It is not only in New Zealand that the majority is flexing its muscle. In America it is Donald Trump who is exploiting this disconnect between protected elites and the unprotected common people. In the UK it is Nigel Farage, the tireless warrior for taking the UK out of the EU, who has proved that perseverance and an understanding of the common man, can eventually secure victory for majorities over the post war neo-liberal minority elites that have been so dismissive of the concerns of those their policies most affect.

Brexit is a wake up call. If the elites do not hear it they will be punished at election time but only if democracy prevails.

If I may be so bold? If you want to know what is happening in the world watch Al Jazeera News, Freeview 16. Great coverage and fast response to happenings in the world.

After Brexit the next move should be "Home Rule For Devon" :-)

Reply

Ken Edwards

1/7/2016 05:33:33 pm

Well spoken Jo. The doings of the last week all seemed like a good script for a hand of bridge. East (Nigel) calls 3 Hearts (of oak of course), North (Nicola) Doubles, West (Hillary) calls 4 No Trumps and Trumpie (as South) replies with 5 Clubs (being a bit of a club collector). Then Angela enters and drops a pot of Brussel Sprouts on the table spoiling the hand.... just musing... Meanwhile the door is always open in the old Commonwealth. After all we did vote to keep the Union Jack in our flag. Oh yes and one other thing, Set Trumpie onto that Nicola upstart.

Reply

paul scott

10/7/2016 12:12:01 am

There is substantial world wide opinion that the pansies in Westminster may brexit out the back door, and pop back in through the window. The vote was set up as a show for Cameron to rid himself of the Conservative Brexit people. The Empire is powerful. Pompous, vile, unelected, and powerful.
If you had stayed another day Jo, you might have seen the Bangkok newspapers [ Thai speaking] with a massive picture of a ferocious Lion on the page of World News. The Union Jack is seen here on shirts, and bags , and car plates. It is a symbol of strength and power, freedom and civilisation to young Thais.